Tasks and exercises

1. Comment on archaisms. Arrange the following archaic words into lexical and grammatical archaisms.

Aught, belike, didst, dost, eke, ere, hast, hath, maiden, naught, quoth, shalt, steed, thee, thou, wert, woe.

2. Translate the following sentences. Pick out obsolete words and comment on them.

1. De Bracy blew his horn three times, and the archers who stood along the wall hastened to lower the dragbridge and admit them (W. Scott). 2. Locksley, for such was the name of this yeoman, readily took part in the archery contest and won the prize (W. Scott). 3. Their triumph was announced by the heralds, the trumpeters and shouts of the spectators (W. Scott). 4. Each touched with the reverse of his lance the shield of the antagonist whom he wished to oppose (W. Scott). 5. A narrow space between these galleries and the lists was occupied chiefly by the yeomanry and the burghers (W. Scott). 6. On the platform beyond the southern entrance were placed the five magnificent pavilions of the five knights who were the challengers (W. Scott). 7. At each of these gates stood two heralds, attended by six trumpets and a strong body of men-at-arms (W. Scott). 8. He looked like a strolling minstrel, for he carried a harp in his hand, which he played, while his sweet tenor voice sang a merry love-song (W. Scott).

3. Group the following neologisms as to the ways of their formation. Consult the dictionary and comment on their meaning. Give their in your native language equivalents.

Agro-industrial, audio-lingual, backpacker, beach, wagon, biotelemetry, black bluster, black shirt, by-time, chauffeuse, ecocide, ecogeography, epoxy, ethnoscience, facepack, hairstylist, halfday, listen-in, microcopy, microcomputer, vitaminize, wonder, boy, work-fellow, to adultify, alffluenza, Amerenglish, to arm-twist, arrestee, to awfulize, to babynap, bezzle, can-do, co-ims, to disimprove, eyeprint, gimmie, gloomster, gofer, illiterature, JIT, kissy, mechatronics, picturesome, pol, to quietize, to reschedule, squaerial, suspenser, to unimpress, white-knuckle.

4. Make distinction between neologisms and occasional words. Pick out occasional words from the following sentences.

1. The theory is getting less and less defensible. 2. I can’t speak on TV, I’m camera shy. 3. They accused the Administration spokesman of trying to sloganize the country out of the economic decline. 4. There are many men in London who have no wish for the company of others. It is for the convenience of such people that the Diogenes Club was started, and it now contains the most unsociable and unclubbable men in town. 5. He was wived in Texas, and mother-in-lawed, and uncled, and aunted.

5. Classify the following words into root words, derivatives, compounds and compound derivatives.

Writer, disappointment, deaf-mute, boyishness, break, wonderful, tree, book, unknown, notebook, egg, go, handbook, re-write, high, bald-headed, cry, well-dressed, railroad, highly, black, effect, morphologically, superman, open-hearted, honey-mooner, blackness, chocolate, good, readable, student, root-word, effective, classification, toy, compare, theatre-goer, accordingly, unpleasant, bookworm, classroom, highlight, blackboard, high-priced.

6. Arrange the following words in hierarchical series, using tree diagrams:

furniture, desk, chair, bed;

lecture, speech, ovation, sermon;

relative, person, uncle;

carrots, vegetable, food;

automobile, vehicle, sports car, sedan.

7. Describe some of the differences of emotive meanings in the following sets of words:

mother / mom;

father / daddy;

policeman / pig;

hell / Gehenna.

8. Find cases of meaning equivalence in the following sentences.

1. He is still spry at eighty: very lively and nimble. 2. The space ship was the peak, the top, the absolute culmination of space-splitting speed. 3. “Why did you make a face?” “It’s that scent. I find it a bit too much. It’s – well – ” “Well! What is it?” “I fancy indecent is the word I’m groping for.” “It happens to be the most exclusive perfume on the market.” 4. On the surface he was exactly what she wanted in a son. Tall, fair, good-looking, athletic, but not a bore, conventional, but not a prig, with good taste, but not in any way ‘arty’. 5. Death alters everything. Death changes all. 6. I drifted back slowly into the pleasant void of sleep where there weren’t any aches or pains. 7. To queries she was always ‘not so great’ – an unspecified lack of health rather than any positive illness. 8. They were really furnished apartments, but the lady always referred to them as a flat. 9. A lapse of the ling. A slip of the tongue. 10. Dorchester is a delightfully peaceful place, nestling in stillnes and silence and drowsiness. 11. I did indeed propose a personal interview, my dear Master, but I ought to have begged, entreated, beseeched it. 12. I shrieked, Harris roared; George waved his hat, and yelled back.

9. Find antonyms for the words given below. Classify the words into affixal (derivational) and root (absolute) antonyms. Translate the antonyms into Ukrainian.

Alike, alive, big, black, clean, clever, darkness, to die, dry, enemy, evil, ti give, good, joy, to laugh, life, light, to love, narrow, old, to open, poor, quick, to reject, right, sad, slowly, strong, ugly, wet, wide, young.

Active, artless, attentive, careful, convenient, descend, disarrange, discord, downstairs, employed, fruitful, immature, impossible, misunderstand, order, outlet, painful, polite, pre-war, selfish, successful, underestimate, unknown, useless.

10. Express the contrary meaning by using antonyms. State whether they are absolute or derivational.

1. All the seats were occupied. 2. The room was lighted by the strong rays of the sun. 3. A lamp is a necessary thing in this room. 4. The little boy was outside the car. 5. He drew a crooked line. 6. The lesson seemed to be long and difficult. 7. On the tray there was a jug of cold water. 8. The coach was empty of passengers. 9. Around the garden ran a high wall. 10. The book looked dull. 11. They chose a cheap restaurant. 12. He was tall. 13. He opened the door. 14. He was sad again.

11. Comment on the meaning of the prefixes in the following words.

Afloat, afoot, afresh, alight, along, anew, awaken.

Amoral, anomalous, aseptic.

Befriend, behead, belittle, besiege, bewitch.

Uncomfortable, unequal, unhappy, unreal, unsafe.

Unarm, unbelt, unbind, uncap, undress, unmask, untie.

Disagree, disapprove, discomfort, disobey.

Disappear, disarrange, disband, disconnect, disjoin.

12. Translate the following words into Ukrainian paying attention to the difference in their meaning:

Childish – childlike, colorful – colored, delightful – delighted, economic – economical, exhaustive – exhausting – exhausted, feverish – fevered, godlike – godly, historic – historical, loving – lovely – lovable, manly – mannish, pleasant – pleased, reddened – reddish, respected – respectful – respectable, rightful – righteous, snaky – snakelike, starry – starred, tasty – tasteful, touchy – touched – touching, watery – waterish, womanlike – womanly – womanish.

13. Translate the following sentences into Ukrainian. Pick out prefixed words and comment on the meaning of these prefixes:

1. He was disinclined to trouble himself with a young man (W. Maugham). 2. There would be a time for rearrangements and readjustments (G. Chesterton). 3. Your co-believers are remarkably unscrupulous and insensitive about those of us who have come to the opposite conclusion (Ch. Dickens). 4. As she talked to Mamma, relating the events of her journey, she displayed strong, discolored teeth which, however, were somewhat unmanageable and made little clicking noises (A. Cronin). 5. I am afraid, I misjudged you in the past, I beg your pardon (W. Maugham). 6. In all big cities there are self-contained groups that exist without intercommunication (W. Maugham). 7. Uncle Elliot said it was most improper and Mamma said she thought it unnecessary (W. Maugham). 8. He was a non-representative artist and he painted portraits of her in squares and oblongs (W. Maugham). 9. Until the events of the last few days he had been almost supernaturally steady all this year (J. Galsworthy). 10. He was an ex-fisher (W. Maugham). 11. Young Jolyon sat down far off, and began nervously to reconsider his position (J. Galsworthy). 12. Soames desired to alter his condition from that of the unmarried man to that of the married man remarried (J. Galsworthy). 13. There’s an unfortunate devil, who has got a friend on the poor side, that’s glad to do anything of that sort (Ch. Dickens).

14. Classify the following –er nouns into: a) agent-nouns;

b) nouns denoting things which do what the stem denotes;

c) nouns denoting persons who live in a certain country or locality.

Announcer, Britisher, cutter, defender, driver, fighter, footballer, foreigner, free-thinker, gardener, listener, Londoner, Netherlander, New-Yorker, offender, owner, reader, reaper, speaker, villager, opener.

15. Comment on the meaning of the noun-forming suffix –ess. Give Russian equivalents of the following nouns in –ess. Pay attention to the corresponding suffixes in Russian.

Baroness, poetess, actress, stewardess.

Empress, heiress, lioness, tigress, traitress.

Advanturess, hostess, Jewess, laundress, shepherdess, waitress.

Countess, goddess.

16. Comment on the meaning of the suffix –ish. Arrange the following adjectives into groups denoting:

a) belonging to some nationality or locality;

b) like, having the quality of;

c) approaching the quality of.

Babyish, biggish, brownish, brutish, childish, dampish, devilish, dollish, fattish, Finnish, foolish, girlish, greenish, greyish, Irish, Jewish, kittenish, monkeyish, piggish, Polish, poorish, reddish, Spanish, Turkish, tigerish, whitish, wolfish, womanish

17. Form adjectives by adding the suffix –ly to the following nouns. Arrange these adjectives into two groups according to their meaning:

a) having the quality of, characteristic of;

b) occuring.

Brother, coward, day, father, hour, man, month, mother, night, quarter, sister, soldier, time, week, wife, woman, year.

18. Translate the following sentences into Ukrainian. Pick out nouns with suffixes and comment on the meaning of these suffixes:

1. I have to say that you have a traitress in your camp (B. Show). 2. Mummy, is daddy in your room (J. Galsworthy)? 3. There is no happiness like that of being loved by your fellow-creatures, and feeling that your presence is an addition to their comfort (Ch. Bronte). 4. By displaying towards Irene a dignified coldness, some impression might be made upon her; but she was seldom now to be seen, and there seemed a slight difficulty in seeking her out on purpose to show her coldness (J. Galsworthy). 5. His cunning, his personal skills, his behaviour, his mixture of good-nature and unbendingness were all of a piece (C. Snow). 6. I recalled his high spirits, his vitality, his confidence in the future, and his disinterestedness (W. Maugham). 7. A dramatization of the work was made, which ran for a season in New York (W. Maugham). 8. He is the idealist, he is the dreamer. 9. From the top lefthand drawer of her chest she brought out a handful of sweets (A. Cronin). 10. The roar of the pneumatic cutter in that narrow space was deafening (W. Maugham). 11. He took a cigarette and sucked in a lungful of smoke (W. Maugham). 12. I have every confidence in my informant (A. Cronin). 13. A polite refusal is better than a rude grant (J. Galsworthy).

19. Comment on the examples of converted words in the sentences below. State to what part of speech they belong and the derivational pattern of conversion:

1. Miss Watkins was a nobody. She was a drifter. No family, no close friends (P. Benchley). 2. He turned his head wearily on the pillow. The nurse shooed us from the room then (H. Robbins). 3. But I am not in the least prepared to give a support to degrading superstitions (C. Snow). 4. I stood up as they neared my table (Id.). 5. I called Jane in and told her to get all the department heads up into my office…What was the good of being boss if nobody showed up for you to boss? (Id.). 6. She was wearing a tweed coat trimmed with fur, smart travelling clothes, foreign in make and cut (A. Christie). 7. George signalled for the check. The waiter brought it and he paid him (Id.). 8. The talk reverted to the subject which had been tabooed before (A. Christie). 9. Seizing the knocker, she executed a deafening rat-a-tat-tat and, in addition, thumped upon the panels of the door (Id.). 10. I heard a miaow behind me, and, turning, saw a lean white cat (H. Wells). 11. He was sweating a little from being down around the engines, and he straightened up and wiped his face with a piece of waste (E. Hemingway). 12. Caroline put the palms of her hands out to the sun to get them browned (M. Spark). 13. This was his last try (J. Hilton). 14. His face paled. Hatred choked him (P.O. Connor). 15. My thoughts have been much occupied with the ups and downs, the fortunes and misfortunes of married life (W. Maugham). 16. Down the road, in twos and threes, more people were gathering in for the day of marketing, the day of festival (R. Ludlum). 17. I used often to go out for a swim in the Pacific (I. Montagu). 18. He bridged his hand over his eyes – the light over the bed seemed to be blinding him (J. D. Salinger). 19. He tensed the muscles of his big neck, as though forcedly levelling his voice (D. Carter). 20. He waited, and the wait was not long (R. Ludlum).

20. Classify the following compounds according to the part of speech they belong to.

Age-old, home-made, anything, skin-deep, killjoy, yesman, salesman, ill-fitting, whitewash, three-room, first-rate, metal-cutting, baby-sit, haymaker, water-proof, handshake, well-bred, tender-hearted, whatever, anybody, one-sidedly, never-to-be-forgotten, himself, bottleneck, widespread, old-looking, sunbathe, whoever, third-rate, clean-shaven, hair-dresser, hair-do, well-wisher, oak-tree, life-long.

21. Discuss the meaning of the words house, white, die in connection with the problem “concept - meaning”.

A house in the country. A full house. Every word was heard in all parts of the house. White House. An ancient trading house in the city. A noisy cheerful house. To keep house. To bring down the house. To leave one’s father’s house. On the house.

White clouds. White hair. A white elephant. The white race. White magic. White meat. As white as snow. White wine. It’s white of you. White lie.

Die of hunger. Die a violent death. Die in one’s bed. The day is dying. Die to the world. I’m dying to know. His secret died with him. Die in harness. Die game. Never say ‘die’.

22. Explain the motivation of the following words and word-groups:

a driver, unanswerable, skin-deep, home-made, to winter, to water, a bee, a snake, book for a needle in a bundle of hay, catch at a straw, babble, basketball, blooming health, bookshelf, bottleneck, boyish, bump, buzz, catlike, chatter, chirrup, crash, eatable, foot of a mountain, giggle, green with envy, handkerchief, head of a procession, heart of the country, howl, key to a mystery, legs of a table, lioness, mow, nightgown, nose of a plane, overgrow, prefabricated, purr, skilful, splash, swish, teacher, tinkle, tongues of flame, travelling-bag, twitter, watery.

23. Explain the absence of motivation in the following words and word-groups:

big, red, to read, baker’s dozen.

Working Definitions of Principal Concepts